Intelligent Fiber Optic Systems, Inc.

Ifos, Inc.

Leland Stanford Junior University

Litton Systems, Inc.

Ecole Polytechnique De Montreal

Ifos, Intelligent Fiber Optic Systems

Richard James Black

Behzad M Moslehi

Vahid Sotoudeh

Mark R Cutkosky

Herbert J Shaw

Joannes Mario Costa

Yong-Lae Park

Seok Chang Ryu

Bruce L Daniel

Keiichiro Toyama

Alan Yeung

Santhi Elayaperumal

Fereydoun Faridian

Joshua Kuehn

Kelvin Chau

Suzanne LaCroix

Jacques Bures

Levy Oblea

Patrick Dumais

Jay A Chesavage

Bijan Moslehi

Livia Zarnescu

Rui Wang

Julia Di

Samuel Frishman

Kian Moslehi

A biopsy needle has a cylindrical shell outer cannula and a stylet consisting of an inner stylet and outer stylet, both of which are inserted into the cylindrical cannula. The outer stylet has a series of strain relieved slits which provide bending over a deflection region in one direction, and the outer stylet is formed from a material such as a shape memory alloy (SMA) having a superelastic phase. The deflection is generated by an SMA wire spanning a deflection extent and attached to the outer stylet on either side of the deflection extent. The inner stylet, when positioned inside the outer stylet, has one or more actuation fibers which couple optical energy into the SMA wire or hollow SMA tube, causing a deflection of the outer stylet over the deflection extent, with the optical energy provided to the actuation fibers for control of the deflection. Additional fibers may be placed in the inner stylet to measure temperature and to measure deflection.

Steerable biopsy needle with fiber-activated shape memory alloy

A multi-axis fiber Bragg grating sensing system has a plurality of spatially distributed and mechanically isolated three dimensional multi-axis sensing towers, each having a plurality of connected nonparallel sensing pillars having a straight portion of a length and straightness to support a fiber Bragg grating and connected to at least one other of the three dimensional multi-axis sensing towers via a curved portion having a curvature radius equal to the minimum bend radius of an affixed optical fiber. The optical fiber has a plurality of fiber Bragg gratings and is affixed to each of the dimensional multi-axis sensing towers wherein a fiber Bragg grating is positioned along a straight portion of a sensing pillar of each of the towers. An interrogator captures and measures wavelength data from the fiber Bragg gratings for measuring multi-axis force information applied to each of the three dimensional multi-axis sensing towers.

Multi-axis fiber Bragg grating sensors and systems

A temperature correcting pressure gauge which has a diaphragm having at least one surface coupled to a source of pressure to be measured, the diaphragm first surface having a first FBG from a first optical fiber attached in an appropriately sensitive region of the diaphragm, a FBG from a second optical fiber attached to the opposite surface from the first FBG, the first and second FBGs reflecting or transmitting optical energy of decreasing or increasing wavelength, respectively, in response to an applied pressure. The first and second FBGs have nominal operating wavelength ranges that are adjacent to each other but are exclusive ranges and the FBGs also have closely matched pressure coefficients and temperature coefficients.

Fiber optic pressure sensor

A biopsy needle has a cylindrical shell outer cannula and a stylet consisting of an inner stylet and outer stylet, both of which are inserted into the cylindrical cannula. The outer stylet has a series of strain relieved slits which provide bending over a deflection region in one direction, and the outer stylet is formed from a material such as a shape memory alloy (SMA) having a superelastic phase. The deflection is generated by an SMA wire spanning a deflection extent and attached to the outer stylet on either side of the deflection extent. The inner stylet, when positioned inside the outer stylet, has one or more actuation fibers which couple optical energy into the SMA wire, causing a deflection of the outer stylet over the deflection extent, with the optical energy provided to the actuation fibers for control of the deflection. Additional fibers may be placed in the inner stylet to measure temperature and to measure deflection.

Shape sensing biopsy needle

A biopsy needle has a central axis and includes one or more sensing regions, each sensing region formed by a plurality of sensing optical fibers located over a particular extent of said central axis and inside the outer shell of the needle. The sensing optical fibers are coupled to a wavelength interrogator. A steerable catheter has a central axis and outer shell, the outer shell coupled to a plurality of optical fibers in sensing regions and actuation regions, the sensing regions formed over particular extents of the central axis by bonding gratings to the inner surface of the outer shell, and the actuation regions formed by coupling optical energy into shape memory alloys bonded to the outer shell.

Steerable shape sensing biopsy needle

A drill has a stationary drive mechanism coupled to a rotating drill, the rotating drill having a serpentine optical fiber positioned on an inner shell having a serpentine groove with fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) coupled to the inner shell and arranged parallel to the central axis of rotation for measurement of axial forces and also positioned circumferentially for measurement of drill torque. The FBGs are arranged on a single optical fiber and coupled to a broadband optical source such that reflected optical energy is directed to an interrogator for estimate of strain at each FBG. The FBG responses may also be examined dynamically to estimate material hardness during a drilling operation.

Drill for characterization of materials

A biopsy needle has a cylindrical shell outer cannula and a stylet consisting of an inner stylet and outer stylet, both of which are inserted into the cylindrical cannula. The outer stylet has a series of strain relieved slits which provide bending over a deflection region in one direction, and the outer stylet is formed from a material such as a shape memory alloy (SMA) having a superelastic phase. The deflection is generated by an SMA wire spanning a deflection extent and attached to the outer stylet on either side of the deflection extent. The inner stylet, when positioned inside the outer stylet, has one or more actuation fibers which couple optical energy into the SMA wire, causing a deflection of the outer stylet over the deflection extent, with the optical energy provided to the actuation fibers for control of the deflection.

Steerable biopsy needle

A thermal protection system (TPS) test plug has optical fibers with FBGs embedded in the optical fiber arranged in a helix, an axial fiber, and a combination of the two. Optionally, one of the optical fibers is a sapphire FBG for measurement of the highest temperatures in the TPS plug. The test plug may include an ablating surface and a non-ablating surface, with an engagement surface with threads formed, the threads having a groove for placement of the optical fiber. The test plug may also include an optical connector positioned at the non-ablating surface for protection of the optical fiber during insertion and removal.

Fiber optic temperature sensor insert for high temperature environments

A plurality of AWG filters with aliasing responses are selected such that the wavelength range of a fundamental response of the AWG filters results in the aliased range of AWG filters to be adjacent to a fundamental range of the AWG filters. A plurality of optical sources is provided sufficient to cover each fundamental wavelength range and each alias wavelength range of the AWG filters. When a single one of the optical sources is enabled, reflected optical energy from a series string of FBGs coupled to the optical source is applied to the plurality of AWG filters, and the AWG output in combination with the wavelength range of the optical source is used to discriminate reflected wavelength from the FBG sensors.

Interleaved aliased AWG filter for continuous wideband wavelength discrimination

A wavelength interrogator is coupled to a circulator which couples optical energy from a broadband source to an optical fiber having a plurality of sensors, each sensor reflecting optical energy at a unique wavelength and directing the reflected optical energy to an AWG. The AWG has a detector coupled to each output, and the reflected optical energy from each grating is coupled to the skirt edge response of the AWG such that the adjacent channel responses form a complementary pair response. The complementary pair response is used to convert an AWG skirt response to a wavelength.

AWG filter for wavelength interrogator

Steerable shape sensing biopsy needle and catheter

Growing community of inventors

Menlo Park, CA, United States of America

Richard James Black